Science on the Rise in Developing Countries

PLoS Biology | http://biology.plosjournals.org Kofi Annan, the SecretaryGeneral of the United Nations, recently called attention to the clear inequalities in science between developing and developed countries and to the challenges of building bridges across these gaps that should bring the United Nations and the world scientifi c community closer to each other (Annan 2003). Mr. Annan stressed the importance of reducing the inequalities in science between developed and developing countries, asserting that “This unbalanced distribution of scientifi c activity generates serious problems not only for the scientifi c community in the developing countries, but for development itself.” Indeed, Mr. Annan’s sentiments have also been echoed recently by several scientists, who present overwhelming evidence for the disparity in scientifi c output between the developing and already developed countries (Gibbs 1995; May 1997; Goldemberg 1998; Riddoch 2000). For example, recent United Nations Educational, Scientifi c, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) estimates (UNESCO 2001) indicate that, in 1997, the developed countries accounted for some 84% of the global investment in scientifi c research and development, had approximately 72% of the world researchers, and produced approximately 88% of all scientifi c and technical publications registered by the Science Citation Index (SCI). North America and Europe clearly dominate the number of scientifi c publications produced annually, with 36.6% and 37.5%, respectively, worldwide (UNESCO 2001). It is rather obvious that richer countries are able to invest more Essay